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Classic test-pieces revisited No 2: The Severn Suite

Prof Stephen Allen takes an in depth look at Edward Elgar's 'The Severn Suite' to find yet more intrigue and debate about its inspiration...

Elgar
  Prof Stephen Allen takes a closer look at Elgar's masterful work for the brass band medium

In the second of a new series on 4BR, Prof Stephen Allen takes an in depth look at another classic work of the brass band medium to examine it in a wider context away from the contesting stage.

Severn Suite

His choice on this occasion is 'The Severn Suite' by Edward Elgar, a work originally written for the 1930 National Championships of Great Britain — but which has been subject to debate and intrigue ever since.

Stephen has been a great champion of Elgar's music and has written extensively about this work in particular, with a comprehensive analysis appearing in the academic publication, 'Musical Times'.

Here he takes 4BR Editor Iwan Fox through the composition and its inspiration, and how in his opinion it is inextricably linked to Elgar's feelings of personal loss and lack of spiritual faith rather than a series of picture postcard portraits of the city of Worcester and its surroundings...

in his opinion it is inextricably linked to Elgar's feelings of personal loss and lack of spiritual faith rather than a series of picture postcard portraits of the city of Worcester and its surroundings...4BR

Performance

You can find out more about the work linked to a performance in Stephen's own 90th anniversary critical edition with the Princetown Brass Band at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKAauqAte2w&t=1195s&fbclid=IwAR1KcZ25MH8qDyttU1HAicUKBxs1hEknjN0jljxz4NL79nBZZpJ1ml2FWlQ

The Presenter

Prof Stephen Allen PhD (D. Phil Oxon) is Professor in Popular Music at Rider University in New Jersey.

https://www.rider.edu/faculty/stephen-arthur-allen

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